Born this day

One of the most influential German film directors of the silent era, and a prominent figure in the expressionist movement in German cinema during the 1920s.

Willmer “Little Ax” Broadnax US

African-American hard gospel quartet singer. A tiny man with glasses and a high, powerful tenor voice, he worked and recorded with many of the most famous and influential groups of his day.

Upon his death in 1994, it was discovered that Broadnax was female assigned at birth.

Simon Raven (1927 – 2001) UK

Novelist, essayist, dramatist and raconteur who, in a writing career of forty years, caused controversy, amusement and offence. Among the many things said about him, perhaps the most quoted was that he had "the mind of a cad and the pen of an angel". E W Swanton called Raven's cricket memoir Shadows in the Grass "the filthiest cricket book ever written"

Antoine Bodar(1944 – ) Dutch

Roman Catholic priest , historian and author of several theological books.Shortly before his ordination, it was disclosed that he was gay, but later distanced himself from homosexual practice.

In a newspaper interview in 2005, and later in the book Unordered Love, he discussed his views on homosexuality, religion and church.

Birgitt Bender(1956 – ) German

Politician and member of Alliance '90/The Greens, who has been a member of the German Bundestag since 1992.

Malcolm Gets(1963 – ) US

Actor, who is best known for his role as Richard in the American television sitcom Caroline in the City.

Died this day

Leon Bakst (1866 - 1924) Russian

Painter and scene- and costume designer. He was a member of the Sergei Diaghilev circle and the Ballets Russes, for which he designed exotic, richly coloured sets and costumes.

Edward Perry Warren(1860 - 1928 ) US

Art collector and the author of works proposing an idealized view of homosexual relationships. The Warren Cup, now in the British Museum,was one of his purchases, which he did not attempt to sell during his lifetime because of its explicit depiction of homoerotic scenes.

Warrem Cup, showing anal sex between an older Roman man and a youth

Jeremy Wolfenden(1934 - 1965) UK

Foreign correspondent and British spy at the height of the Cold War.

Terry Dolan( 1950 - 1986 ) US

New Right political activist, and co-founder and chairman of the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC). Although Dolan was a proponent of family values and the organization he led was persistently critical of gay rights, he was discovered to have been a closeted homosexual who frequented gay bars and died from complications of AIDS, aged 36.

Chris McKoy(1971 - 2001 ) UK

DJ who used the name Dr. Funk. When he was 21 he was one of the people behind Vox in Brixton, London, which became Europe's biggest black gay club. He introduced black music to the mainstream gay club scene in a new way, and brought black gay club music out of the shadows.

Essayist, literary and cultural theorist, icon, and political activist. Sontag became aware of her bisexuality during her early teens and at 15 wrote in her diary, "so now I feel I have lesbian tendencies (how reluctantly I write this)." At 16, she had her first sexual encounter with a woman. Later in life, she said in an interview that she had been in love nine times - five women, four men.

Sodomy in history, December 28th

1962 — The Rhode Island Supreme Court rules that the state’s "crime against nature" law includes fellatio.

1973 — The New Hampshire Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of that state’s sodomy law.